When democracy is at stake, civil initiatives value more / Amikor a demokrácia forog kockán, megnő a civil kezdeményezések értéke

ARTS research in Budapest has shown that transition initiatives can face similar difficulties like any other organisations which deal with tough issues such as civil rights or social injustices. When the foundations of democracy are fading, the lack of transparency, co-operation or even communication makes their work harder. On the other hand, difficult political context may trigger higher levels of creativity and results in more authenticity to these organizations.

Hungarians are full of great ideas but when it comes to advocacy their initiatives seem the hit the glass ceiling. Sustainability, building partnerships, financing and resource-management are the usual weaknesses of organisations. Grants may help to set up an organisation, but relying on them makes it harder to be effective (deal with the goal of an initiative and keep connected to its people, in other words their target audience). It is clear that building a community takes a lot of effort but it shows a return in power and also in funding. Creating a diverse, thus more sustainable financial background is crucial. Grants are not evil, but b2b solutions, sponsorships and crowd-funding can help in that and they provide a good feedback too.

But in Hungary it’s not all about the money.

The Dream Budapest project that presented the initiatives involved in the ARTS research has proven evidence of the creative value Budapest-based transition initiatives hold. The ARTS workshop has shown what the weaknesses and possibilities are within these initiatives. The final workshop held at the Central European University (CEU) made it clear that all these efforts may be useless in a too bureaucratic environment where suspition is stronger than partnership and where change-makers have to work in a more hostile than open-minded political context. Sometimes even the political acknowledgement of common environmental issues can be difficult when a civil initiative brings them up.

One of the groups involved in the research – Energiaklub – had to face a raid by the National Tax and Customs Administration after they came out with a critical publications about the government’s plan to build a new nuclear plant by Russia. Civil rights and environmental groups involved in the Norwegian Funds scheme had been under various attacks of governmental institutions in the previous years. The proceedings did not find any illegal activities but it seem to be part of a defamation campaign against civil groups that might have a chilling effect on active citizenship in general.

The final workshop – presented in this October by both the ARTS and Seismic project – has shown how hard it is to get people, transition groups, civil servants and decision-makers sit down and discuss common problems and find solutions together. This is what working together to achieve a collective action needs, though. Although transition into a more sustainable future is essential, the lack of co-operation between the stakeholders of sustainable development restrains change. It is also unclear for initiatives what the decision-maker side needs from them to make effective co-operations.

In the researcher’s view

I asked Logan Strenchock, member of the ARTS research team at CEU about the findings of their work. He said the transition initiatives in Budapest are highly authentic, which is a resultant outcome of the political climate.

“Western media covers what happens to our freedom of press, but the work of these organizations is also remarkable. They show that not everyone is willing to allow the mechanisms of society around them to be determined from the top down. The political context requires the initiatives to be more resilient, therefore they have unique forms of collaborating and reaching people. As a result of the political and economic situation, the initiatives are largely volunteer-based and by necessity, need to find creative ways to achieve a positive impact. This aides in preserving the authenticity of their efforts.” – Logan said.

Even the researchers drew a lesson from their work. According to Logan, research should not be too heavily focused on observation alone, but rather a strategic goal should be to support key organisations activities as well. Researchers have to look beyond examination and co-operate with the participants, Logan says.

The cover picture was taken at the ARTS workshop in October 2016. In English: